CHUTZPAH! IRAN ACCUSES U.S. OF SUPPORTING TERROR

Iran, one of the largest documented state sponsors of terrorism in the world, on Monday accused the U.S. of creating conditions in the Middle East conducive to the spread of terrorism.

The shock remarks were made during Monday’s meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which resulted in the U.N. body unanimously backing Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers, including the U.S.

Addressing the U.N. council meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power mentioned the Obama administration’s grievances with Tehran despite the signing of the nuclear deal in Vienna last week..

The agreement, she said, “doesn’t change our profound concern about human rights violations committed by the Iranian government or about instability Iran fuels … from its support for terrorist proxies to its repeated threats against Israel, its other destabilizing activities in the region.”

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Gholamali Khoshroo, fired back at Power.

“It is ironic that the distinguished ambassador of the United States accused my government of destabilizing the region and terrorism. The country that invaded two countries in our region and created favorable grounds for the growth of terrorism and extremism is not well placed to raise such accusations against my country,” he stated at the U.N. meeting.

“Feckless and reckless acts of the United States in our region for so many years are at the root of many challenges that we are now facing in our neighborhood,” he continued.

Khoshroo insisted Iran “is a stable country in an unstable region.”

“As we want our stability to persist, we do promote cooperation in the region and help our neighbors to stabilize and cooperate towards this end,” he said.

On Tuesday, in a meeting in Tehran with the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seemed to channel Khoshroo’s remarks while not singling out the U.S.

Iran’s state-run news service IRNA quoted Zarif supporting a political solution to the insurgency in Syria. He said support for terrorism and extremism is the root cause of the continuation of the Syria crisis as well as regional instability.

The Iranian comments come one month after the U.S. State Department’s annual report on terrorism concluded Iran’s “state sponsorship of terrorism worldwide remained undiminished.”

The report was released about two weeks before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Vienna as part of the extended negotiations with Tehran regarding its nuclear program.

Mark Steiner

Eighteen months after this article was prepared, evidence is clearer how United States has supported terror through ISIL in Syria, thanks to the Obama administration. The devastation in Aleppo is one result. Iran’s Khamenei cannot have any Sunni terror group stand in the way of the armed corridor Iran needs to protect between Iran and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. Russia has ensured Iran will keep the corridor open, the Meditarranean ports available and Assad in power in Syria.